History Main / PublicExecution

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' (where the above image was taken from), LadyOfWar Lucia is captured by the Crimean Rebels and nearly hanged [[ForcedToWatch in front of Queen Elincia]], with the intention of forcing Elincia to surrender the throne. [[DefiantCaptive Lucia]] [[DefiantToTheEnd remains calm]] and keeps reaffirming her UndyingLoyalty to Elincia, even as she's like in the picture. And then... cue the BigDamnHeroes.

* Creator/{{Michelangelo}}'s ''The Crucifixion of Saint Peter'' is a lively showing of the death penalty, with surprised travelers, talkative centurions, and sobbing woman all crowding the scene as preparations are made to suffocate Saint Peter by tying him upside-down to a wooden stick.

* ''The Third of May 1808'', a famous painting by Creator/FranciscoDeGoya, depicts Spanish rebels being shot by a French firing squad during the early stages of the Peninsular War (hundreds were executed this way).

* The intro to ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed'' has Altaïr kill a Templar during a [[HangingAround public hanging]] (interestingly, he doesn't stop the hanging; his only goal is to kill the Templar). In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', Ezio is forced to watch his father and brothers [[HangingAround be hanged in public]] on trumped-up charges. An ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity'' trailer has Arno racing to stop his friend from being executed by guillotine.

* Pirates like Gold Roger in ''Manga/OnePiece'' often receive public executions. According to Igaram, the government pays 30% less for dead pirates because they can't be executed in public. Roger's public execution before the whole world backfired spectacularly for the goverment, though, as his FamousLastWords [[PlotTriggeringDeath started the first Golden Age of Piracy]].

* Pirates like Gold Roger in ''Manga/OnePiece'' often receive public executions. According to Igaram, the government pays 30% less for dead pirates because they can't be executed in public.

* Before the Age of Enlightenment, public executions were the norm, thought to be both [[ValuesDissonance entertaining]] and effective in proving that crime doesn't pay. They were found to have the opposite of the intended effect: criminals and general populace alike became more brutal, and executions signaled it was just fine to kill a person as long as you were in charge when you did it. Starting during the Enlightenment, public executions were superseded by intramural executions (i.e., inside the walls of the prison) and the methods became ''theoretically'' quicker and cleaner, such as beheading, [[HangingAround long-drop hanging]], firing squad, and the electric chair. But even today, public executions are commonplace in some parts of the world. '''More detail is not necessary.'''

* In 1916, [[https://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=1974 a circus elephant named Mary]] was hanged in front of 2500 spectators at a railyard in Erwin, Tennessee, after she killed her inexperienced handler, who struck her for straying out of line while she and the circus's other elephants were being led to a watering hole. Many people who witnessed her attack on her handler demanded her death and, with local towns refusing to allow the circus to pitch up if she was with them, the circus's owners felt they had no choice but to kill her. Erwin was chosen as the execution site because it was the nearest town with equipment strong enough to hang an elephant.

* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'': Jolly and Eggy look as though they're about to be hung in ''Great War in the Bizarre World'' episode 33 for pretending to have long front teeth (which the rabbits consider a crime since long front teeth is supposed to determine their placement above other rabbits), but [[SubvertedTrope Jolly instead has his teeth ripped from him]]. Eggy isn't punished because he doesn't have teeth at all.

* HangingAround: Executions via hanging.
** NeckSnap: Most hanging executions are intended to kill the victim by instantly breaking their neck with the noose, if it's not arranged to slowly strangle them instead.

** ShootTheRope: A victim of hanging is saved by having their noose shot or cut down.

* BurnTheWitch: [[WitchHunt People accused of being]] [[WizardsAndWitches practitioners of magic]] get sentenced to death, usually by burning at the stake. However many real-life witch trials, such as the ones in Salem, often ended with the condemned being ''hanged'', not burned.

* ShotAtDawn: Execution by firing squad, or when multiple gunmen focus their weapons to kill someone.

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: An executed person may have their corpse intentionally left out in the open as a deterrent against anyone who may dare imitate their crimes.

* MakeAnExampleOfThem: Someone is executed as a warning to other people to never dare imitate their crimes.
* OffWithHisHead: Execution by decapitation, historically a very popular method of killing people.

* ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'': "Salvaging" is this. The Handmaids carry out the death sentence against a rapist by beating and clawing him to death. This is also called "{{p|ortmanteau}}articicution". {{Subverted}} when the Handmaids [[spoiler: all refuse to stone Janine, at June's instigation.]]

** The Green Festival on January 5th, 2021 was initially planned as a public execution for Dream, but [[spoiler:this became {{subverted}} when all of the Butcher Army's plans get thrown out the window, as Dream reveals the destruction of the Community House]] and [[WhamEpisode the shit hits the fan]] for everyone in attendance.

* ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'': The regime carries these out routinely, [[HangingAround mostly by hanging]], with the bodies left on display to warn others. One special form is where the woman (usually with no power in their society) tear apart male convicts. This last appears to be when they were convicted of crimes against women. Of course, Ofglen claims that the man we see killed by them didn't actually rape and murder a woman-he was part of the resistance. She knocks him out so he won't suffer, though this reveals her to the Eyes of God.

* In ''Literature/NewesOfTheDead'', Anne Greene is [[HangingAround executed by hanging]] for alleged infanticide on trumped up charges - every midwife could tell that the child was miscarried. The execution is described in all gruesome details, like Anne's relatives pulling on her feet to make her death faster. Unusual in that Anne survives the hanging despite all those efforts.

* The climax of Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' involves Quasimodo trying to save Esmeralda from being [[BurnTheWitch burned at the stake]] in public by Frollo.

* One ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip has Calvin on the gallows waiting for the big swing. Cut back to reality, where it turns out his dad is trying to get him to wear a tie.

* It takes one of these in ''Film/BlackKnight'' for Creator/MartinLawrence's character to figure out he's [[FishOutOfTemporalWater not in a theme park]].